Mo Salah will wave goodbye to his spiritual home - but his legend status is secure

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The sun will shine on Mohamed Salah at Anfield on Sunday and then set on one of the most dazzling careers of the Premier League era.

That, of course, is assuming Salah does not sign for another English club. Considering what Anfield means to him, we can safely make that assumption.

After making only a moderate impact at four European clubs, Salah found his spiritual home nine years ago when he arrived as a 25-year-old. And he will leave as a Liverpool deity.

In the run-up to his 442nd and final appearance for the club, Salah’s remarks on social media about the need for a return to ‘heavy metal football’ have been widely discussed. And rarely can there have been such a significant disconnect between pundits and the overwhelming majority of Liverpool fans.

Wayne Rooney has not been alone in suggesting Slot should not involve Salah in the squad for the match against Brentford. You can only assume the ex-Manchester United player and staunch Evertonian was being fiendishly mischievous.

If Slot leaves a fit Salah out of the squad for the final game of the season, it will be his last meaningful decision as Liverpool manager. Whether he starts Salah is another matter but he will give the Egyptian the stage on which he has strutted like no other in recent history.

The supporters will not give a second thought to the words that many ex-professionals considered a slight against Arne Slot. In fact, most - if not all - thoroughly welcomed those remarks.

And those supporters don’t pay to watch a manager, not even, for example, if it is someone as charismatic as Slot’s predecessor Jurgen Klopp. They do not get out of their seats for antics in the technical area. It is Salah they come to see.

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He will be justifiably proud of his Liverpool numbers - 257 goals, 122 assists … so far. He will be justifiably proud of his durability, of his robustness.

By my calculation, Salah has only been unavailable for selection for 21 weeks of his nine years with Liverpool. Considering some of the treatment he has been given by opponents, that is hugely impressive.

But his Liverpool career has not been about the numbers - it has always been about the thrill. The supporters who will pay homage to one of the club’s greatest-ever players have never gone to a stadium to watch Salah for the numbers.

They have gone to watch for the anticipation. Special players generate special feelings inside a football arena. Unlike the statistics, it is hard to write those feelings down.

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But it is a buzz, it is an expectancy. For a long, long time, you got it when Lionel Messi took possession. And it is no leap of belief to think Liverpool fans got that same buzz, that same expectancy, for a long, long time.

That the buzz, expectancy and anticipation was ebbing away over the course of this season - and over the course of Liverpool’s relatively feeble title defence - means the time is right for Salah to leave. It is best for the player, who turns 34 in three weeks' time, and the club.

But memories of his magnificence are fresh enough to get the great stadium out of its seat for one final time. The sun will set on Salah’s Liverpool career on Sunday but his place in Anfield’s firmament is assured.

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